Summer is here and school’s out. The flowers bloom, the air warms, and the world invites you to pause and breathe. It’s a season of possibilities and play—of hiking trails and hammock naps, of surfing waves and flipping pages.

Sure, hard work may build the future, but lazy afternoons build joy. As motivational writer Greenville Kleiser once said, “Periods of wholesome laziness, after days of energetic effort, will wonderfully tone up the mind and body.”

There is grace in resting. Mortimer Caplan called it “the habit of resting before you get tired.” And even Charlie McCarthy once joked, “Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.”

This summer, take a deep breath. Put your feet up. Savor the sunshine. And remember—you’re allowed to rest, to laugh, to simply be.